Once that final bell rings on the last day of school, every student feels as if a weight has been lifted off their chest. The relief of not having to study for tests or complete homework for the next three months is pure bliss. Students start to feel the happiness of not having any more work but then the teacher hits them with a summer project and all that joy goes down the drain. Normal summer projects are either twenty page packets, book reports, or essays that must be completed before the next school year. Teachers plan and make the projects and most of them are boring and long. On the other hand, if the students made the summer projects then they could make them to be fun and entertaining. Student-designed summer projects would help assure that the work load would be manageable and would be on subjects the student need more practice with.

Every student has a different agenda over summer break, whether that is traveling for vacation, working at their job, or just hanging out with friends and family they all are doing something. Students know their schedule best so if they were to design their own summer project they would be better fit for making the work load manageable. If students could make their own over the summer assignment, then they could make sure that they would be able to successful complete the project even with their other arrangements that they may have. Some students might have multiple summer projects and their teachers wouldn't know. So if the teacher was designing the project, they might think that the amount of work their giving isn't a lot but once that amount is double or even tripled, depending on how many projects the student was given, then the student would be overwhelmed. Depending on the students' schedules and the number of projects they are being given, a student-designed summer project would be able to accurately determine which amount of work would be best for each of them.

Over the summer assignments are normally very boring and plain, for example, I had a summer project for physics this past summer and it was a fifteen page packet with generic conceptual questions and repetitive math problems. Every time I would continue the packet my eyes would glaze over and I felt as if I was falling asleep. It was extremely boring and I dreaded trying to finish it. If summer projects were student-designed then the students could make them to be more engaging and creative. The teacher's job is to teach and give the correct content so they shouldn't have to worry if the students will enjoy it. However, if the students were to create their own summer project then they wouldn't make it boring because they're the ones who have to complete it.

Summer assignments normally consist of a broad review of the basics for that specific subject. While this might be helpful for the students that easily passed the previous class, this isn't always the case for the rest of the students. For example, my friend had an over the summer assignment for her advanced biology class and the assignment was a packet that briefly reviewed all of the basic subjects. She told me that the packet was mostly easy, but once the course had started she realized that she didn't know anything. She tried reviewing her packet but it was so broad and brief that it didn't help with anything. If that packet had been student planned, then the students could have removed the common knowledge sections and went more in depth about the subjects that they didn't know. Teachers don't know what students fully understand and what they don't, so it would be extremely beneficially to the students if they were to design their own projects. It would allow them to take out the content that they know and focus more on the new or more difficult content so they could be more prepared for their upcoming classes.

Student-designed summer projects would be more beneficial since the students are the ones that know what work load is best and content they need to focus on. It would be extremely hard for the teachers to figure out each and every one of their students' summer plans and what subjects they need to focus on. By having students create their own summer projects, it would be taking away the teachers' struggle to planning a successful summer project and would be more helpful to the students. Summer projects are the foundation for the course it is focusing on, so the students should be the ones who take control and create their own foundation.